The Bankruptcy Act of 1898 in title 11

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Title 11 of the U.S. Code restated the Bankruptcy Act under its own section numbers from 1926 until the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 replaced it. Old opinions and briefs cite the same provision both ways (“§ 17a of the Bankruptcy Act”, “11 U.S.C. § 35(a)”). This table gives both numbers for every section, as the nine editions from 1926 to 1976 print them. Each title 11 section is tied to the Act through the source credit printed after it.

In the 1926 Code

The Act’s 72 sections became title 11’s 72 sections, one for one and in the same order. Each chapter starts at a round number:

Chapter captions are as printed in the 1926 Code’s analysis, p. 243.

How the numbering developed

• Numbers never moved. Once a title 11 section number was assigned, it never moved. Later editions only added sections in the gaps, marked repealed sections, or stopped printing text.
• 1934 edition. It added chapter 8 (§§ 201–207, Act §§ 73–77B, the debtor-relief provisions of 1933–34). It also added a chapter 9 at §§ 301–303 for the municipal-debt provisions of May 24, 1934 (Act §§ 78–80).
• 1940 edition. It added the Chandler Act’s chapters X–XIV at the Act’s number plus 400 (Act § 101 = 11 U.S.C. § 501, and so on). It moved chapter 9 to §§ 401–404 (the 1937 municipal provisions, Act §§ 81–84). It printed the old §§ 301–303 only as “Unconstitutional.”
• 1976 edition. It replaced §§ 401–404 with the new chapter 9 of 1976, Act §§ 81–98 = 11 U.S.C. §§ 401–418.
• Two Act sections were renumbered in 1952, and the Code kept the old title 11 numbers:
  • Act § 355 became § 354 (11 U.S.C. § 755);
  • Act § 644 became § 643 (11 U.S.C. § 1044).
• The trap. 11 U.S.C. § 401 is Act § 81, but Act § 401 is 11 U.S.C. § 801.

The table

Act section, its 11 U.S.C. number, its catchline, and notes on what changed from edition to edition (1926–1976). Select a column heading to sort by that column.

Notes

• The Chandler Act (1938) took apart three earlier sections — Act § 12 (compositions), § 74 and § 77B — and spread their subdivisions across chapters X–XIII. The 1976 edition prints a table under each former section showing where each subdivision went.
• Chapter XV of the Act (§§ 700–755, railroad adjustments, 1942) is printed in 1976 only as “Omitted” (11 U.S.C. §§ 1200–1255).
• Seven title 11 sections in the 1976 edition were never part of the Act. The Code’s notes say they were “not enacted as a part of the Bankruptcy Act”: §§ 76a, 93a, 101a, 103a, 202a, 205a and 208.

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